Bosch wants a bigger slice of the cake; readies itself for rising chip demand
Growth in the global market for semiconductors shows no signs of stopping – and Bosch is growing right along with it.
For automotive semiconductors alone, market researcher S&P Global Mobility expects average annual growth of 12% through 2028. In 2021, this slice of the market was worth some USD 49 billion. The key drivers of this development are semiconductors for electrified and automated driving.
Bosch is also systematically readying itself for further growth. In July 2022, the company announced it would invest billions of euros in its own semiconductor business, at locations such as Dresden and Reutlingen (both Germany), Bosch plans to establish new engineering centres for example.
The 300-mm wafer fab in Dresden, which went into operation in 2021, is already expanding its clean-room area after just one year. Major expansions are also underway in the existing clean-room spaces for 200-mm wafers at the Reutlingen location.
In Malaysia, the new test centre in Penang will be completed in 2023; the existing test center in Suzhou, China, was expanded in 2021.
“We want to continue to be a leading supplier of key products for the automotive and consumer electronics industries. That’s why, in addition to our manufacturing activities, we are also consistently expanding our development capacity in the areas of integrated circuits, systems-on-a-chip (SoCs), micromechanical sensors, and power semiconductors", says Jens Fabrowsky, who as executive vice president in the Automotive Electronics division is responsible for the semiconductor business at Bosch.
